LATVIAN SKATE NETWORK
There are these skaters who you can rely on clips wise. They are constantly in the loop, stacking and popping up in your feed more than you demand 😀 (just kidding). Meelis is one of those skaters—the productive ones. Luckily for us, he’s not only been crushing it in Krulli but also spent some quality time in the streets. These “9 min of shitty Estonian skateboarding” as Meelis described himself are pretty perfect, exactly what we need right now. Enjoy!
Somewhere in Skanstes area, around 2.5 km away from old #baraxdiy, lies a mysterious asphalted park, dubbed by the local skaters as Swamptrack. It is located in a construction site, and, by the looks of it, was the first thing that got built on that site, except couple lanes, a playground and a work out area. The development of the of site is on halt for what seems to be close to a year already. Rumor has it the developers realized they were about build on a swamp and stopped the building process. So, Swamptrack is there all alone surrounded by empty fields of gravel and overground lawns. As a park swamptrack is weird. It is a symbiosis of skatepark and a pumptrack, with two boxes. There are bowl-like curves and quarters with no coping, and a random tall flat bar, that someone will definitely crash into. Despite all of its oddities, Swamptrack has it’s charm, and you need to sneak in which adds to excitement.
Eric and the boys are visiting Jekabpils’ newest public park. It is surely not the worst place to be, but it also far from giving you nice ride. The placement of ramps is random, everything is dead fixed to the ground, and the rails are thin and sharp as knives. This is what yo get when the builders are a furniture company.
This was the final episode of season 1. Season 2 is coming next summer. Cheers.
“Maybe I have always been a skateboarder. I just started to skate late?!..” After the third beer I thought while sitting on the warm stone of the Stalin Plaza. June has heated in and I still explore this planetary experience now in a different city and through filming and skateboarding. Could I compare summers by the filmed footage, like last summer – nine tapes, now in September I started the third tape of this season. Some may say that early autumn is the best time for filming… Who knows, I have learned that it’s very hard to plan in skateboarding.
But even though I have not filmed much this summer I have experienced some of the sweetest moments I could wish for. Spending a month in Prague, Czech Republic and visiting the Transforma Festival in Tabor. Getting to know the local skate scene and I think I got a delusion for life from the beauty of the city of Prague, but maybe from the cheap beer there. Who cares?! I was happy to see that people there were filming, making zines, art, and events. I felt a good vibe there. Homies! Cherry on top was the Transforma Festival in a small town south from Prague – Tabor. My last weekend in Czech. I was able to join on the second day and be part of some goofy skateboarding activities, for the love of DIY, beers, and good electronic music.
So here is a little video recap. If you want to learn more, check the video by Tonda Záhorka and pictures by Chao Hsin Jan …. Check out this article.
My delusion did not stop there. Right after getting back from Prague, I jumped into the RajonTV tour. Tried my first two set and with help from a friend attempted a triset too. Could not land though. Heat was boiling us but Latvian rippers did not step back, I witnessed some badass tricks and rough spots, even got few clips myself, at least two 😀 It was the right way to switch back to Latvian vibe. Can’t wait for the new film and the magazine. Late Autumn?
But this year I started with a battle. I was on to land a kickflip. Took me 5 months to land it in the grass, 7 months to land on flat ground. And I managed to land it at the Baltic Girls Skate Jam 2, I kind of already knew in the morning that I was going to land that day, the same day where Laura Birša made the first recorded local hippy jump record with a height of 87cm. She could go higher, I am sure about it. But the kickflip battle is still going on and shoes are wearing off one by one and even if skateboarding is hard, let’s be real, dating is harder.
And why delusion? Well, the music I was listening this summer, haha, it’s definitely older than your girlfriend and is from my delulu era. Listen to it while cruising from point A to B or at home while cooking. With this vibe I went through the Summerz 2023. Lightly cringe! See you!
Didn’t know much about Bauska’s skate scene prior to our visit (except this of course). We did find some spots there, including one dope basketball court with two stairs (pesniognar steez spot) which we collectively decided was something that was missing in Riga. Other than that there was the skate park. Agent Nesaule felt like investigating, so we went.
There are so many skateparks in Latvia that we need to have a special skatepark inspector—a person who will travel around Latvia and check in with the parks to see if they are still holding on. Our mate Eric Nesaule decided to take that role. This summer, during RajonTV Zemgale tour Eric examined 3 skateparks. Check out what Eric found out at the first examination in Jelgava.
Third annual RajonTV tour starts on 11th of July. This year we are going to Zemgale and Selija regions. Along with street skating we are planning 3 morning meet up sessions at Mind Work Ramps skateparks (Olaine, Iecava, Kraslava) where we’ll skate and chill with locals. So if you are in town, come to skate with us.
Our Schedule:
July 11 – Ķekava and Olaine (Meet up session at Olaine skatepark, 12:00)
July 12 – Jelgava and Tērvete
July 13 – Iecava and Bauska (Meet up session at Iecava skatepark, 12:00)
July 14 – Jēkabpils and Aknīkste
July 15 – Ilūkste and Daugavpils
July 16 – Daugavpils and Krāslava (Meet up session at Kraslava skatepark, 12:00)
Our Team:
Arturs Nesaule (Tikari Skateshop, Organizer of The Year 2021)
Rūdolfs “Rudik” Rorbahs (RajonTV SOTY 2022, Trank Boyz, single)
Artūrs “Mr. Boga” Bogdanovičs (Boards.lv, RajonTV SOTY 2021, photographer)
Edvards Gaba (Filmer, Tikari skateshop, RajonTV, dad)
Roberts Krums (Filmer, Tikari skateshop, artist)
Rūdolfs Rudzīts Henčels (Cinematographer, Clockwise skateshop, pensiognar)
Niklāvs Vētra (Highest Ollie Champion in Latvia 2021, DJ, awesome dude)
Rūta Grīnerte (RajonTV Rookie of The Year 2022, Boards.lv)
Aksels Ķezberis (Boards.lv)
Ralfs Sērmūkslis (Cesinieks of The Year 2022)
Aleksis Sokolovs (Trank Boyz, tall)
Roberts Potašs (Trank Boyz)
Nauris Dollins (Tikari Skateshop, Photographer, pensiognar)
Kārlis “Sensejs” Grīva (Celebrity trainer, Riga Skate School)
Kārlis “Kamerrāvējs” Purvēns (Clockwise skateshop, Crime Town)
Kaspars Polis (Saldus Saldie, Wise Supply, skates in nice shirts)
Artūrs Paugurs (Pus8yGrab)
Emīlija Stoka (Pus8yGrab)
Gints Frinde (Saldus Saldie)
Juris Šantars (Krabik Crew)
Andis Vanadziņš (Saldus Saldie)
Linards Viksniņš (StraightForward skateboards Pro, Tikari Skateshop, Trank Boyz)
Linda Lindenberga (Pus8y Grab)
Artūrs Grinbergs + Andris Putniņš (Tikari Skateshop, GetMoneyGetCats, pensiognar)
Previous Tours:
Latgalian Cuise 2021
Kuramo Voyage 2022
Half of the success on a skateboard is commitment. You can be talented, flexible, eat fruit and all that, but if you can’t fully commit to a trick it will never work. For some there’s a mental barrier that they must break through to try and stick a trick, for others there seems to be no barriers at all, some people seem to have too much commitment even. However, for majority of skaters there’s a process that they go through. The process can be long or short, but it is there.
We talked to a couple local skaters to find out more about what do they do to commit. We asked about their process and about a memorable trick that stuck out to them in terms of commitment. This is what we got. Enjoy.
MEELIS ERM
Well basically I just believe in myself and hype myself up in my mind. Trying to imagine how I land that shit. It might sound weird but sometimes I insert thoughts in my brain that I’m like every other pro skater and I know what I’m doing hahaha. Sometimes it helps. Filming with a crew of homies is a big factor as well. But usually I just don’t let myself bother if I don’t get the trick fast and I understand that sometimes it just takes time to wait for the perfect commit. If a filmer shoots the trick very awesome and you check the try from camera and it looks good on video—that helps too!
There was that bump to gap ollie (last clip in my part “Ou, lähme streeti”). I was really struggling with the commitment on that ollie. Police came to kick me out and I asked for 1 more try and they said yes. I landed it. Police was hella nice and cheered me later as well. So that means police is very helpful on committing a trick as well.
DOMANTAS ANTANAVICIUS
I don’t have a good idea what’s my preparation haha. Maybe just skating flat a lot. Or if thinking about doing a trick down the spot and before that I do it more times while warming up. But that’s basically it. When I am at the spot, most of the time I just stare at the spot until I get a good imagination how the trick will work or feel. sometimes you just feel that the body is centered in the air, that’s when I try to stick it even if its not flippin’ correctly, if I struggle I just try to calm myself down and kind of try to do it as I was doing it when not overthinking.
Tallinn just got a new DIY built at Skoone Bastion with the help of RedBull. Some of our mates including Fricis, Kristaps Judris and Zimis were there to help out with the building. To find out a bit more about Skoone, we had a quick chat with our homie and the project manager of the DIY construction, Siim Sild.
All photos by Lauri Taht
You battled for Metsakooli DIY last year now you have Skoone Bastion, is it a good substitute for Metsakooli?
Luckily, the fight for Metsakooli was worth it, the park is pretty much redone now and will be open shortly I guess. Yeah, it won’t be 100% DIY anymore but all the main obstacles remain the same, so I’d still say it’s definitely pretty DIYish, just with new asphalt and a few added elements. So Skoone won’t be a substitute but rather another option for DIY lovers. Skoone Bastion is really centrally located, just next to the Old Town and the port. So it’s a great meetup spot to warm up before hitting the streets and the opposite as well. Go there after a heavy street sesh, have a few beers and grind a couple of rainbows, classic.
You had the box at Skoone for some time. How did that start?
The whole Skoone thing began about 15 years ago when they put new asphalt up there. Skaters have a pretty good nose for these kinds of things, so soon after that the first plywood box was taken up there and over the years different wooden & metal skateable elements started showing up there. In 2012 the first DIY project was carried out and a few concrete obstacles were poured in place. I wasn’t personally involved with the planning of all that but I’d say because of inexperience these didn’t turn out to be too great. When the concrete truck showed up there, some of the forms weren’t even ready, the driver was in a hurry, there weren’t enough people to properly shape all the obstacles etc. So yeah, it was hectic and you could see it from the end result. About 3 years ago (I was in New Zealand at that time), some of the guys decided to build a ledge up there from granite curb blocks. That kind of sparked the interest in that place again for a short period but within a few years the blocks ended up kind of misaligned.
How did the expansion ideas of Skoone came about?
I received a call from Red Bull in November last year and they said they have a budget to execute these kinds of projects but they need a place for that and someone to manage it. I realised pretty quickly that Skoone would be the perfect place but I was pretty skeptical if the city would allow it. At first, they said they’ll only allow us to fix the old obstacles but we still decided to present them with our “dream plan” that wouldn’t be too over the top for them to agree with. About the obstacles that we decided to put in there – we had thought about building a quarter to get more speed for the ledge already for a while, so that was easy. I also really enjoyed skating taco looking obstacles in New Zealand, so I knew I’d want to go there as well. Slappies are fun too, so we had to put in a slappy curb. Anyways, I presented my ideas of the park to Mihkel and Pärtel, we made a few additions here and there and that was about it. Luckily the city was really chill with our plans, it went way smoother than I expected. It sure helped a lot that Red Bull is such a known brand.
How did Fricis & co. got involved in the project and how was it working with them?
It seemed fitting for this project to include a bit of an international crowd and I also think that Mind Works is doing a great job overall with the parks they build, so that’s why I decided to involve them. When the time started to get closer, I found out that Fricis is also coming, which was great with him being a pretty renowned DIY enthusiast and all. The guys put in crazy hours but were always really cheerful and positive. Kristaps even stayed up there for one night to finish some of the obstacles. Working with Fricis was definitely fun, unfortunately, I had to cut some of the crazy ideas he had but I think we struck a pretty good balance in the end haha.
How did the scene receive the new DIY? How do you like it?
The DIY was definitely well received, people couldn’t wait to skate it. I guess it was also the first time that some of the younger guys were involved in building a DIY skatepark. It feels different when you skate something that you yourself have created, so they’ll get the hang of it now. We somehow ended up with a rainbow themed park in the end which is pretty cool I think. I love it actually. We had a few rainbow looking obstacles planned from the start but as we started building, we somehow ended up adding 2 more. So there are 5 rainbow’ish obstacles all together now + an amazingly good looking ledge carved out by Aigars (Zimis) [editors note].
Do you think a DIY spot is better than a proper skatepark?
Parents don’t drop off their kids at a DIY skatepark generally, so it will most likely be less crowded most of the time, less scooters. Also, when designing a skatepark they have to ask for everyone’s opinion etc. With a DIY skatepark you don’t have to make some of those compromises. We were lucky that we had this freedom to change things up at the last minute while building something right next to the Old Town, crazy. I think skating DIYs sets you up better for street skating as well. Well okay, the skateparks in Estonia aren’t actually that perfect anyways, haha, but I think you get what I mean. And the vibe… you don’t get that in regular skateparks.
Video by Rainer Kaur
In the 80s and 90s there was a subgenre of famous cartoons where they’d age down characters. So there was Tom & Jerry kids and Scooby Doo kids which were basically the same thing only with main characters as kids. Not saying that the new breed of Vilnius skaters are the same as the og Fully Ghetto squad, but there’s certainly a healthy dose guidance. Nice watch, More please!
Edited by:
DJ GREEN @kitty4pan
Skaters:
Tautvydas Makarevicius @twizzy8888
Lukas Vaskelaitis @guccilukas
Gintaras Kadziliauskas @bigboygince
Dominykas Apanavicius @kitty4pan
Lukas Nojus Kyro @chillafnojus
Martynas Kairevicius @martinelis
Tomas Baublys @tomas.baublys
Elius Kenstavicius @elijus.ken
Rokas Giedraitis @rokis1000